The Biden Administration last week substantially modified restrictions on U.S. person investments in certain Chinese companies, focusing those new restrictions particularly on entities with ties to the Chinese defense or...more
6/11/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
China ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Executive Orders ,
Military End Use ,
NDAA ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
SDN List ,
Surveillance ,
Technology Sector ,
Trump Administration
Effective June 1, 2021, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) published new Burmese Sanctions Regulations (“BSR”) that implement President Biden’s February 10, 2021, Executive Order...more
6/7/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Blocked Person ,
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Burma ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Executive Orders ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
George W Bush ,
ITAR ,
Myanmar ,
Obama Administration ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
President Clinton
On April 8, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) added seven Chinese supercomputer firms and organizations to its Entity List, the agency’s principal export sanctions list. BIS alleges...more
4/26/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
China ,
Customs and Border Protection ,
Entity List ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Exports ,
Forced Labor ,
Huawei ,
Human Rights ,
Imports ,
National Security ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Supply Chain ,
Technology Sector ,
U.S. Commerce Department ,
ZTE
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia recently ruled that certain securities trading restrictions will be prevented from going into effect with respect to Xiaomi Corporation (“Xiaomi”) under Section 1237 of the...more
On January 19, 2021, one day before the transition to the new Biden Administration, the U.S. Department of Commerce published its interim final regulations (“Regulations”) that will allow the United States to review, block,...more
3/26/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
CFIUS ,
China ,
Electronic Communications ,
Foreign Investment ,
Information Technology ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
Licensing Rules ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
Technology ,
U.S. Commerce Department
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last week ruled that certain securities trading restrictions will be prevented from going into effect with respect to Xiaomi Corporation (“Xiaomi”) under Section 1237 of...more
On January 11, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced the Trump Administration in its final week in office is returning Cuba to the official State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism. Cuba will thus re-join...more
1/15/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Cuba ,
Cuban Assets Control Regulations (CACR) ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Foreign Policy ,
Humanitarian Assistance ,
ITAR ,
NGOs ,
Obama Administration ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
State Sponsors of Terrorism ,
Trump Administration ,
TSRA ,
United Nations
Rounding out an already-intense 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) issued three notices in December that expanded export sanctions and restrictions against Chinese, Russian, and...more
1/14/2021
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
China ,
Commerce Control List ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
Hong Kong ,
Licensing Rules ,
Military End Use ,
Popular ,
Russia ,
U.S. Commerce Department ,
Venezuela
With only two weeks left in its term in office, the Trump Administration issued yet another 11th hour Executive Order (“EO”) on January 5 that purports to create a new legal framework to ban transactions with certain Chinese...more
On November 12, 2020, President Trump issued Executive Order 139591 (“the Order”) that will shortly bar any U.S. person from “any transaction in publicly traded securities, or any securities that are derivative of, or are...more
11/20/2020
/ China ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Defense Sector ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Divestment ,
Entity List ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Investment ,
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) ,
National Security ,
NDAA ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Trump Administration ,
US Trade Policies
Beginning May 1, 2020, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) will require a filing fee in connection with any formal notice of a “covered transaction” or a “covered real estate transaction.” The...more
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) has banned the export from the United States of certain masks, respirators and respirator parts, and medical gloves used as personal protective equipment (“PPE”) through a new...more
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Investment Security published proposed regulations on September 24 (“Proposed Regulations”). Under the Proposed Regulations, more foreign investment transactions will be subject...more
10/31/2019
/ CFIUS ,
Covered Transactions ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Exemptions ,
Export Controls ,
FIRRMA ,
Foreign Investment ,
National Security ,
Personal Data ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Real Estate Transactions ,
Tribal Corporations ,
U.S. Treasury
The Administration has been fully occupied this summer in its ongoing disputes with America’s major trading partners. The U.S. Government is at least nominally resuming high level trade negotiations with China after months...more
7/26/2019
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Canada ,
China ,
EU ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Bans ,
Export Controls ,
France ,
Imports ,
Indictments ,
Mexico ,
NAFTA ,
Section 301 ,
Tariffs ,
Trade Relations ,
Trump Administration ,
UK Brexit ,
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) ,
US Trade Policies ,
USTR ,
WTO
In an Executive Order (EO) issued on Wednesday, President Trump gave exceedingly broad authority to the U.S. Department of Commerce to block transactions of information and communications products and services if the...more
5/17/2019
/ 5G Network ,
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
China ,
Digital Communications ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Information Technology ,
National Security ,
Retaliatory Tariffs ,
Tariffs ,
Telecommunications ,
Trump Administration ,
U.S. Commerce Department
On April 17, 2019, the Trump Administration announced that it would now allow plaintiffs to file U.S. federal court cases against individuals and companies that use private property expropriated by the Cuban government after...more
4/23/2019
/ Blocking Statutes ,
Canada ,
Cuba ,
Damages ,
Economic Sanctions ,
EU ,
Expropriation ,
Fair Market Value ,
Foreign Entities ,
Mexico ,
Multinationals ,
Nicaragua ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Personal Property ,
Secretary of State ,
Trafficking ,
Trump Administration ,
Venezuela
As part of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill) signed into law by President Trump today, Congress authorized the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to use federal funds to assist in the marketing of...more
On November 5, 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) will reimpose certain economic sanctions against Iran that had been held in abeyance under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action...more
A little more than two months after the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (“FIRRMA”) was signed into law, the United States Department of the Treasury (has invoked its new authority under the FIRRMA to...more
10/24/2018
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
CFIUS ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Federal Pilot Programs ,
Filing Requirements ,
FIRRMA ,
Foreign Acquisitions ,
Foreign Investment ,
National Security ,
Reporting Requirements ,
U.S. Treasury
After months of deliberation, Congress has passed the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (“FIRRMA”) as Title XVII in the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (“2019...more
8/15/2018
/ CFIUS ,
China ,
Covered Transactions ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Emerging Technology Companies ,
Export Controls ,
FIRRMA ,
Foreign Investment ,
National Security ,
NDAA ,
Trump Administration ,
U.S. Commerce Department ,
U.S. Treasury
Citing both “serious risk to United States nationals of arrest and long-term detention” and the “imminent danger to the physical safety of United States nationals,” on August 2, the U.S. State Department issued a Geographical...more
On July 25, 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a Russia sanctions bill, “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” (“H.R. 3364”) by an overwhelming vote of 419 to three. This broad-ranging sanctions...more
On March 1, 2017, President Donald Trump released his first major policy statement on U.S. foreign trade relations. Issued through the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”), a part of the Executive Office of the...more
On May 11, 2016, FinCEN published in the Federal Register its long-awaited anti-money laundering (“AML”) rules (the “Final Rules”) governing corporate entities doing business with banks and other financial institutions that...more
6/8/2016
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Banking Sector ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Covered Financial Institutions ,
Customer Due Diligence (CDD) ,
Exceptions ,
Exemptions ,
Final Rules ,
FinCEN ,
Legal Entities ,
Lenders ,
Penalties ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
On March 16, 2016, the Obama Administration further loosened sanctions on Cuba in accordance with President Obama’s policy previously announced on December 17, 2014, and partially implemented thus far, to engage and empower...more
3/18/2016
/ Banking Sector ,
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Cuba ,
Cuban Assets Control Regulations (CACR) ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Grants ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Sanctions ,
Telecommunications ,
Travel Permits